Microsoft's new Windows 10 operating system debuts Wednesday, as the longtime leader in PC software struggles to carve out a new role in a world where people increasingly rely on smartphones, tablets and information stored online.

Lenovo retains its top position astride International Data Corp. (IDC) second quarter PC shipment market share tracker, moving from 19.4 percent of the market a year ago to 20.3 percent. Lenovo CEO Gianfranco Lanci says the PC business is a powerful growth engine for the company.

Shares in Red Hat haven't been this hot since the go-go days of the "dot com" boom when the company went public and its shares soared to $105. On Thursday, shares soared 11 percent to a new 52-week high of $76.70 after a strong earnings report on Wednesday. And Wall Street analysts are impressed.

Fervent customer demand for Apple's brand and devices globally is fueling phenomenal growth of the iPhone business, and China is emerging as an important pillar of Apple's long-term growth strategy, according to Technology Business Research.

Red Hat delivered another quarter of revenue growth in 4Q14, increasing a reported 15% from the year ago quarter to $456 million. This marks the 11th straight quarter of year-to-year revenue growth for the vendor. So what's driving growth? Technology Business Research analyst Andrew Smith offers his detailed insight.

The recently announced partnership between Apple and IBM to develop apps for Apple's iOS operating system is delivering its first solutions: Ten apps as part of IBM MobileFirst for iOS. And some major clients already have signed on.

Microsoft is offering free upgraded versions of its Office software for iPhones and iPads, as the software giant further embraces the so-called "freemium" strategy favored by many newer companies seeking success online.

The Red Hat of today is a far cry from the still-small team of entrepreneurs that unveiled 20 years ago what would evolve into Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Not only is RHEL one of the most widely used support platforms on Wall Street, it is also a global brand. Red Hat veterans remember the "Halloween" release 20 years ago.

Microsoft did release one component, the Outlook email program, through the company's Office 365 subscription service, which costs $100 a year. But a full Office package for Macs was expected this year, as Microsoft usually releases that a year after it produces a new version for Windows.

Facebook and Red Hat made appeals to other technology companies to further embrace Open Source and recruit more women at the All Things Open Conference. While Facebook adds IBM, Microsoft and Yahoo to its OS group, Red Hat's chief people officer calls for more women to get involved in technology - period. WRAL TechWire's Allan Maurer has the details for our Insiders.

When you start a company with a product or service to sell, Bob Young, co-founder of Red Hat and Lulu.com, told a packed room at the All Things Open conference at the Raleigh Convention Center: "You don't sell a product's features, you sell benefits." He also offers more advice. What is it? WRAL TechWire's Allan Maurer has the details for our Insiders in this exclusive report.

Inside the All Things Open conference: Open source software is on the rise even in enterprise settings, Forrester Research analyst Jeffrey Hammond told a packed room as the All Things Open conference got under way at the Raleigh Convention Center on Wednesday. WRAL TechWire's Allan Maurer has the details for Insider subscribers.

Many of the world's top open source experts converge on Raleigh Wednesday and Thursday Oct. 23-24 for the second All Things Open Conference. Speakers include James Pearce, head of Open Source at Facebook, Dwight Merriman, co-founder of MongoDB and DoubleClick, and Jonathan LeBlanc, Emmy award-winning software engineer and head of developer evangelism at PayPal.

Apple's skinnier iPads and flashy big-screen iMac are sleek and stunning. But the tech giant is making a bigger strategic bet with next week's launch of Apple Pay - the mobile pay service aimed at turning your iPhone into your wallet.

If you've upgraded your iPhone or iPad to iOS 8, the new software update for Mac computers will seem familiar. The Yosemite update to Apple's OS X system, available as a free download, adds several features to bring the Mac in line with last month's iOS 8 update for mobile devices. There's also new functionality to make Macs act more like iPhones.